Advance team of 6 monitors to be sent to Syria in 24 hours

ByREUTERS

April 14, 2012 22:33

GENEVA - An initial team of six ceasefire monitors is due to arrive in Syria within 24 hours and deploy within 36 hours, with more to follow within days, the spokesman for international mediator Kofi Annan said on Saturday.

Annan spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told Reuters in Geneva that a six-person advance team, led by a Moroccan colonel, would be "quickly supplemented by more from UNTSO (United Nations Truce Supervision Organization) in a matter of days".

Russia and China joined the rest of the UN Security Council on Saturday to authorize deployment of up to 30 unarmed observers to monitor Syria's fragile ceasefire as activists reported more deaths in the country and renewed shelling of Homs.